Author Archives for Ann Kammerer
On December 2, Restaurant Associates / Compass workers at Harvard Law School became the newest members of UNITE HERE Local 26.
"It’s been a long time coming," said RA Union committee leader Willie Moore. "And now, if you take one of us on, you take all of us on."
The Law School workers organized throughout the summer with the help of Harvard Food Service shop stewards and several volunteer Harvard student organizers.
The victory rode the wave of excitement from the successful contract campaign by the 550 workers at Harvard University who were already part of the union, who recently won a landmark new agreement with Harvard. The new contract brought about more than just wages and benefits, but also an ongoing Joint Best Practices Committee – modeled after the efforts of Local 34 and 35 at Yale – charged with finding solutions to sustainable foods, sustainable jobs and year-round employment.
Harvard Law School workers had started attending Harvard food service shop steward meetings even before their union recognition. With this victory, the last non-union group of service workers at Harvard University has joined with their sisters and brothers. Says Harvard Local 26 chief shop steward Ed Childs, "This is just the beginning. Now we’re going to be helping campus food service workers all around Boston to become part of the Union."
On November 29th, Carmen Castillo, a Room Attendant at the Providence RI Westin Hotel and Local 217 Executive Board member, won the General election to fill a vacant seat on the Providence City Council. She is the first room attendant elected as a city councilor in North America.
Carmen mobilized over 70 members of Local 217 as volunteers to canvass in the ward. Volunteer members came from as far away as Connecticut and Newport to knock on doors and talk with voters about Carmen’s leadership both in her union and in the neighborhood. Union members also volunteered their time to do phone banking from their homes.
"I am so excited being elected and I look forward to being a voice for my community, and for everyone who wants a fighter in City Hall," Carmen said. She is now focused on building a strong neighborhood organization to ensure that the neighborhood receives the city services it deserve.
To read additional coverage of Carmen’s historic victory, click any of following news links:
UNITE HERE, the hospitality workers union, commends Yale University for its decision not to reinvest in private-equity hotelier, HEI Hospitality. Earlier this year, Brown University announced that it will not reinvest in HEI until the University is confident that HEI is respecting the rights of its workers, and the University of Pennsylvania stated publicly that it had no current plans to make future investments in HEI-sponsored funds.
Over the past three years, HEI has a growing record of exploitative labor practices at their hotels.
Most recently, a California State Labor Commission hearing officer found the HEI-managed Embassy Suites in Irvine guilty of denying rest breaks required under state law to eight workers and ordered the hotel pay them $41,000. HEI has now settled or been held liable on 32 wage and hour administrative complaints for a total of $99,999 at the Embassy Suites Irvine.
In March 2011, eight jurors ruled unanimously that former HEI Senior Vice President Larry Trainor was retaliated against by HEI for filing a complaint with the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination. In April 2011, the judge overseeing the case doubled initial damages awarded – to $4.5 million – noting the jury’s finding of knowing retaliation, which entitles the employee to multiple damages.
Since 2008, multiple National Labor Relations Board complaints were issued against HEI. In settlement agreements with the NLRB where HEI did not admit wrongdoing, HEI has promised not to threaten to fire workers, take away benefits, or make work more difficult for participating in union activity. HEI even promised not to confiscate food that workers received from the union.
UNITE HERE Local 217 member Cheryl Barbara, who cooks at New Haven’s High School in the Community, appeared on the Food Network’s ‘Chopped’ on November 22 in a special episode about school food and nutrition. She competed against three other school cafeteria chefs from Connecticut and New York and was declared the winner by a panel of judges that included White House chef Sam Kass.
Read more about her victory here. Congratulations, Cheryl!
In Atlantic City, Local 54 members who work at Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal have overwhelmingly voted to accept a new three-year contract.
The contract covers 1,800 workers at Trump Plaza and Trump Taj Mahal, and is materially similar to the contract with the four Caesars’ properties ratified earlier this month. The contract at the Borgata expires in 2012.
The new contract includes continuation of the important free family health care and employer-sponsored defined benefit pension. Workers will receive at least one pay increase with additional increases triggered by company revenue increases.
Hotel Management Posts Sexually Suggestive Photos of Employees and Fires Housekeeper Who Objects
Martha Reyes came to work and found men laughing at pictures of Hyatt housekeepers whose faces were pasted atop bikini-clad cartoon images on the company’s bulletin board. Humiliated, Martha Reyes tore down the photographs of her and her sister Lorena. Both sisters were later fired by the hotel.
Martha and Lorena have 30 years of combined service at the property. Jobless, both women are struggling to make ends meet, and Martha may lose her home.
Now these women have filed retaliation charges with the EEOC.
Read the press release. Visit www.hotelworkersrising.org to learn more.
Last week, activists send a petition to Pomona College to repeal its gag order that prohibits workers from talking to students in dining halls.
Now, Pomona College officials are demanding that some dining hall workers, along with some student employees and faculty, present documents authorizing them to work in the United States. And if they don’t produce the documents by Dec. 1, they face termination, college officials say. Pomona College is reverifying work documents even though no federal agency has told them to do so."
Wednesday, students and dining hall workers held a press conference to decry this unwarranted investigation. Felipa Sanchez has been a cook at Pomona College for 23 years, and told the Los Angeles Times "Why now, after 23 years, are they doing this?"
We’re not sure why the administration chose this moment to announce this immigration investigation, but Gilda Ochoa, Professor of Sociology and Chicana/o Latina/o Studies was quoted in the student paper: "We don’t know intention, but we can look historically about various union busting tactics, and this is precisely one of those tactics. Because of that, it does foster intimidation [and] fear among union people."
Pomona College faculty passed a resolution criticizing the investigation Wednesday, saying
"We are concerned about the message this review of immigration status sends, particularly its effects on the College climate and our educational mission."
Pomona College’s Sustainability Action Plan states:
"Pomona’s goal is to serve food on campus that is healthy, fresh and delicious, and that is produced in a just and sustainable manner. The food climate at the College should be one in which food is not simply the fuel that energizes students, but also one that creates an environment of awareness and fosters an understanding about where food comes from, who produces it, how this is achieved, and the implications of the food choices consumers make every day."
A college community is not sustainable where workers risk being fired and students are escorted out of dining halls by campus security.
On November 14, 2011, UNITE HERE Local 40 members in Vancouver, BC, ratified a new union contract with the Hilton Metrotown Hotel by 89%. The new contract includes historic housekeeping workload relief language–the best in Canada–as well as key improvements to banquet workers’ compensation, pension contributions and wage increases for all Hilton workers.
The Hilton agreement achieves a new standard for hotel contracts in the Metro Vancouver area.
UNITE HERE’s housekeeping workload goals are always to make this work safer and more sustainable. The Hilton room attendants are now leading the way in this effort. Their new contract improvements include better access to supplies and equipment, a reduction in the number of floors housekeepers must travel daily, the strengthening of fair of assignment of work and no new duties assigned to room attendants without the Union’s consent.
Banquet department improvements include an increase in service charges and better transparency of banquet gratuities.
Additional hotel-wide contract improvements include a reduction in the number of hours required for health care coverage, pension contribution increases and significant wage increases.
The new contract was achieved through the hard work, organization and militancy of the Hilton Metrotown rank and file commitee leaders and their co-workers. The housekeeping and banquet departments were able to raise the bar for contract language in their areas by a high level of organization and mobilization of their co-workers.
On the way to achieving their historic contract, Hilton workers from all departments rallied at the hotel, delegated management, signed petitions, wore buttons and voted to strike by 92%
Hilton Metrotown workers received key support during their contract campaign from many loyal customers at the Hilton, including labour unions, progressive poltical leaders and community organizations. We encourage everyone to patronize the Hilton Metrotown.
Workers at Orlando International Airport are celebrating their growing union and a new contract settlement as they stand together for a better future in Central Florida.
On October 21, 2011, workers at AREAS USA won recognition of their Union, with 80% of the workers authorizing membership in UNITE HERE Local 362. These workers are uniting for a better future to achieve respect, dignity and fair work rules on the job.
Then, on October 24, 2011, members of Local 362 who work at SSP America in the Orlando International Airport voted to approve a new Contract that greatly improves their health care plan, and also providing guaranteed annual wage increases.
[Hollywood, CA] – This morning, October 28, 2011, over 100 workers at the W Hollywood walked off the job to protest not being able to take breaks. The hotel is owned by HEI Hospitality whose major investors include Yale, Harvard, Princeton, Notre Dame and University of Chicago, among others.
W Hollywood workers allege that these universities are complicit in wage theft. Banquet servers, bellman, in-room dining attendants and housekeepers claim that because of increased workloads, short-staffing and insufficient time, they often cannot take their breaks. California state law allows workers two 10-minute paid rest breaks and one 30-minute paid rest break in an eight-hour shift.
"These universities cannot hide behind HEI," said Mildred Velasquez, a housekeeper at the W Hollywood. "Working here is no better than working at a sweatshop. These universities give HEI millions of dollars. They are the real owners of this hotel. They are responsible for our working conditions."
HEI has repeatedly broken the law. Earlier this month, a California Labor Commission hearing officer found the HEI’s subsidiary Merritt Hospitality, operator of the Embassy Suites in Irvine, guilty of denying rest breaks to hotel workers and has ordered the hotel pay $36,000 to workers. This ruling follows on the heels of an earlier Massachusetts court case mandating HEI pay double damages of $4.5 million to a Senior Vice President who was retaliated against by HEI for complaining about age discrimination.